Susie Lerner:  Hello, I am the Wife and Mother of this group, and I am proud to say so. I am 42, but I’m not really interested in focusing on that fact. What is more important is what I have been doing the past 42 years… I grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY and Saratoga, CA with my crazy, loving family of 6. I came to San Luis Obispo to attend Cal Poly, and found that it is a great place to call home. Ben and I met when I chased him down at the Craft Center, and we married three years later. We have lived in Santa Clara, Moreno Valley, and even Wisconsin! But SLO seems to be the place we always return to ~ we seem destined to forever be the SLO Lerners. After graduation, I taught in elementary schools until Isaac was born, and have been a full time domestic zookeeper ever since. This recent transition from PTA volunteer to homeschool teacher has been extremely rewarding. Between teaching, planning this trip, and training for the NYC Marathon, my life is pretty full! I feel lucky to call it all mine. This trip has been a dream of Ben’s and mine since our kids started school at Pacheco Elementary, a Spanish/English Immersion school. We wanted to take the kids to see and experience other cultures, and use their bilingualism in the real world. Of course, the fact that neither Ben nor I have ever been to Europe certainly motivated us as well!  We look forward to documenting our travels and experiences on this blog to share with all of you.